Comic Book Movies

The post Avengers: Infinity War landscape is a challenging one. In the moment, neither Ant-Man & the Wasp nor Captain Marvel can truly exist outside the shadow of Thanos, the Infinity Gauntlet, and the lingering questions of how these movies can provide a way forward for Avengers: Endgame. This will likely matter less for posterity, but right now, with Endgame looming, it’s genuinely difficult to enter the MCU and not at least wonder. Taking time for standalone story feels like a luxury this shared universe doesn’t have.

Admittedly, these are the impossible standards I consider for Captain Marvel’s role in this remarkably deep Marvel Cinematic Universe. Tell a good story, introduce a new hero, and develop Marvel cosmic features that can tie in to Endgame. Captain Marvel strikes this balance effectively – substantially more so than Ant-Man & The Wasp – telling a strong new hero origin story that sets the stage for Carol Danver’s role in the MCU recovery. [Read more…] about Captain Marvel Movie Review! Cosmic Continuity Catch-up!

We’ve all had enough of origin stories. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse course corrects with the perfect reinvention of origins, looping recurring beginnings through a multiversal processor until the residual DNA is part of a broader narrative. Miles Morales’ own origin is streamlined and merged with Marvel’s 2014 Spider-Verse event, somehow defining the character more clearly and more engagingly with an additional cast of Spider-Man origins on the side.

About halfway through Ant-Man and the Wasp I started thinking about Lebron James. The brand new Los Angeles Laker has been so good at basketball, for such a sustained period that it’s easy to take his talents (to South Beach) for granted. An average Lebron game last season – a tumultuous one for his Cavs – saw him nearly put up a triple double: 27.5 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 9.1 assists. That’s so darn good (and so stupifyingly in line with his career averages), that if you saw Lebron put up a conventionally *excellent* 25, 5 and 6, it would feel mundane. While those numbers might be all-star caliber for nearly anyone else, for Lebron, that’s a below average night. He’s simply capable of so much more. [Read more…] about Ant-Man & The Wasp Review! Small Stakes

It’s an odd development, but in a world with a healthy output of comic book movie releases, timing makes a big difference. Much like Deadpool 2’s slate of a million jokes per minute, nailing the right moment, the beats between set-up and expectations, is critical to success.

I have to say, that for me, Deadpool 2 is simply too slight for the moment.

Over the years, as I’ve continued to assert Avengers is the best movie in the MCU, I’ve held that nothing could surmount the film’s delivery on expectations. Everything in the nascent MCU from 2008 to 2012 built to that moment of the Avengers coming together for the first time to save New York. The film’s ability to turn all that hype and world-building into a genuinely thrilling, humorous, compelling story is the reason we still even have the MCU. What could be bigger?

The answer, of course, came at the end of that same Avengers, as the budding Marvel Cinematic Universe introduced Thanos and his quest to collect the infinity stones for himself. That introduction has led to an often tangential throughline for Marvel movies from 2012 to 2018, all building to the release of Avengers: Infinity War. [Read more…] about Avengers: Infinity War Review — Oh Snap!